2018 World Cup: 46% of the players of the 32 qualified teams come from the European Top 5 leagues

164 players in England, 95 in Spain, 90 in Germany, 71 in Italy, and 55 in France: a total of 475 players (46%) out of the 1,032 who participated in the qualifying phase on behalf of the 31 teams qualified for the 2018 World Cup (+40 Russian players taken into account, Russia is automatically qualified as the host country) come from a European Top 5 league, according to a study from the CIES Football Observatory published on 27/11/2017.

"The concentration of talents and resources in professional football translates into a strong over representation of footballers playing in the wealthiest leagues and countries. In November 2017, about half of the players who took part in the qualifiers for the squads that will be present in Russia play in six countries, including 15.3% in England (164 players). In total, 57 associations are represented among employer clubs," said the CIES.

Out of the 1,032 players having participated in the qualifiers for the 31 teams qualified and the 40 Russian players taken into account, 98 were born outside of the association they represented (9.1%). The…